Passenger Seat
by EK
Summary: One-shot AU. Platinum/Jade. Based on the popular song of the same name, one man's musings about a trip to the airport, to fetch the girl of his dreams.


Hi! This is me going insane. This song is compatible to any number of pairings, in real life or otherwise.  Hope you like my take on it. This my first attempt at a songfic, and my second at AU and at a one-shot.  

Passenger Seat by Stephen Speaks.  

……………………..

            I haven't seen her in what seemed like ages. Actually it was only two years. 

            I met her at work. She was a new employee in our company; I had been working there for…..I think……4 years already.  She was eager to learn, and she never let any of her seniors to bully her. I admired that in her from the start.  She was also very cheerful, and made friends easily.  

The fact that she was friends with me—more even-- was no easy task on her part. I gave her a hard time. I tried to give her the hard projects. I let her stay overtime on a difficult report. But still she always gave me a warm smile and an understanding mind.  She saw something in me, something even I didn't see. She was unusually patient, when everyone else, I know, would talk behind my back and call me crazy.  

            Aside from all that, she really was rather pretty. Petite, but not diminutive. Her long hair was usually kept in a tight braid, a silky black rope running down the middle of her back. Her jade eyes, slightly hidden behind long bangs, spoke volumes more than her elegant lips.  

            I don't know what came over me. I found myself inviting her for coffee, then for lunch, until at last I took her out to dinner.  

My sister put it the best way, years ago, when I was still very young. She was the sheath to my wild sword. Before I met her, I went to all the parties, trying to meet the perfect girl. But every girl I met was either afraid of my snow-white hair, or of me. I was a very temperamental person, after all. I would flare up, and I wouldn't care who got offended. I got my work done—never mind that I had to step on people. I would be unsusually kind to someone, then be unnaturally cruel, as the situation saw fit. It was a wonder to me why I never got fired. They all said I was psychotic, mentally unstable. 

Somehow all that changed when she came into my life. She showed me how to earn respect, not by force or by threat, but by understanding. She taught me how to be patient with others, the way they tried to be patient with me. I was a slow, but willing student, under her gentle guidance.  

She did not want to leave me; we had such a good relationship together. But she was reassigned to another country, manager to a new branch. There was nothing either of us could do. We tried calling each other, but it was still, different, from having her beside me, feeling her delicate scent, hearing her beautiful words.  

One late afternoon, my phone rang in my office. The secretary was gone, so I took the effort to pick up the call myself. 

It was her.  

Could I possibly fetch her at the airport? Sorry she was not able to call sooner, but she didn't know about it until the last minute………..I cut her apologies short, said I would be there in half an hour, and lowered the receiver.  

I got into my red convertible, newly bought with hard-earned money. I only half-cared what kind of a man I looked to show to her. Fortunately I came from a business meeting. I still had on my white suit, with a good Chinese collar and loose sleeves---I hated neckties and cufflinks. 

            When I pulled in at the terminal, she was at the door waiting for me. She was the same beauty now as when we parted. She work dark slacks over a green turtleneck sweater, complimenting her hair and eyes. She happily waved like a little girl at me, and I didn't mind.  

            I packed her suitcase into the trunk, and escorted her to the passenger side of the convertible. I asked if she wanted me to put up the cover, but she said she would rather enjoy the wind back home.  I took my place behind the wheel, and started the engine.  

I look at her and I have to smile

As we go driving for a while

Her hair blowing in the open window of my car

            She told me about her life there, how she made new friends, learned about new cultures and traditions. I was a bit envious of those friends of hers. At least they saw that bubbly face more often than I did. 

As we go the traffic lights

I watch them glimmer in her eyes

In the darkness of the evening

            Those beautiful eyes, those eyes that spoke millions, as she actually spoke thousands. They told me how her words never lied, that what she said was what she felt. People never felt that about me. They always second-guessed my intentions. They were always suspicious of my actions. But not her.             

Then she told me that she missed me, all those two years. She teased about missing my constantly messy snowy peak, and how she always tried to smoothen out the avalanches into orderly hills and valleys on my head.  She always failed, though. I laughed at the memory, and smiled at the perfect rows of teeth laughing back at me. I realized just then what I've been missing these past two years.   

And I've got all that I need

Right here in the passenger seat

And I can't keep my eyes on the road

Knowing that she's inches from me.

            The thought had been forming in my mind for the past few months, but I did not know what to do about it. Maybe it was just something—ususual—that I felt about her. Surely, I never felt the same way about all those other women I've invited to ride in my beautiful and fast car.  Now, as we passed by one of those 24-hour gas stations, the concept was beginning to take a solid shape. And I had to tell her. 

We stop to get something to drink

My mind clouds and I can't think

Scared to death to say I love her

            How exactly do you tell the woman of your dreams, the one sipping coffee out of a Styrofoam cup beside you, all about the romantic thoughts running through your brain? There might not be another chance like this, should I take it?  

            We went back into the car, and I drove her to her apartment downtown. I tried to think of the best words to say how I felt, but nothing seemed perfectly right. I found myself with a head full of thoughts as we pulled beside the apartment.  I made her stay in the car for a few minutes longer. 

Then the moon beams from the clouds

Hear my heart it beats so loud

Trying to tell her, exactly that 

I've got all that I need

Right here in the passenger seat

And I can't keep my eyes on the road

Knowing that she's inches from me

            I don't know what she thought about all the jumbled words I said to her that evening. Maybe she misunderstood. She must have thought me insane, like everyone else does.  

            But whatever Misao thought……….she suddenly gave me a warm kiss to the cheek. "I love you, too."  

Oh, and I know, this love grows……..

……………………….

I hope you got who was talking, I hope I dropped enough clues.  ^^ I AM the writer of White and Black, after all!  Hope you liked it!   


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